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On the way to work this morning, I was taking the 41 bus along 41st street. Sometimes I get bored and look out the window. One of the places that the bus drove by was Lok’s Chinese Restaurant. At first glance, I thought it said Loki’s Chinese Restaurant. Obviously, that’s not a real thing. But how awesome would that be if it was?

So now I’m going to go ahead and add that to my list of goals/dreams. Opening up a place called Loki’s Chinese Restaurant. Because who wouldn’t want to eat there? And I would call it that even if we didn’t serve Chinese food. Just because I like the way it sounds.

Imagine having Loki as your waiter. I would make sure that there are pictures of Tom Hiddleston all over the walls and at every table. All the wait staff would be dressed as Loki. And all the TVs would be playing Thor, Thor 2, or the Avengers. Sorry, no sports. Unless Tom Hiddleston is at the game.

A couple weeks ago, I went to see Cloud Atlas with my friend. We saw the late show and it was really long and I was really tired. But it was good. I loved the makeup and thought it was all done really well. In the elevator scene, I found myself attracted to the old guy and wondered why, and then I realized that it was James D’Arcy playing him and it all made sense. I wouldn’t mind being trapped in an elevator with old James D’Arcy.

He’s so sexy as an old man.

Another impressive part was Jim Sturgess as an Asian guy. Somehow, he looks even hotter when he’s Asian. I think it’s the look combined with the character and fight scenes that makes him so great. Just everything about him really. After the movie, we reflected on how he was hottest when he was the Asian character.

Yeah. How can you not find that attractive?

My friend sent me a text message the following day about Cloud Atlas and about Asian Jim Sturgess. My brother happened to glance at my phone as I was texting and asked me “Who’s Asian Jim?”. I told him it was from a movie and he was like “The character’s name is Asian Jim?”. I tried to explain it to him but he’s 11 and Cloud Atlas is way too complicated even for some adults.

So I tried explaining how the actor plays an Asian guy but I couldn’t really explain myself. So every so often, my siblings will randomly ask me “Who’s Asian Jim?” and make fun of me. So now I’m pretty sure they just think that I’m dating some Asian guy named Jim. How fun for me…

Yeah, that was as much of that movie as I’ve seen. And it was enough. I was at my friend’s place the other day and we were trying to pick a movie to watch from a somewhat crappy selection that was available to us. We hadn’t seen Due Date so we thought alright, let’s give that a try. We like Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis was good in The Hangover, so how bad could it be?

Bad enough that we opted for a different movie after 15 minutes. Okay, maybe bad isn’t the right word. But we just didn’t feel like watching anymore of it at that point in time. The thing is Zack Galifianakis’ character was just so annoying. I mean I guess he was annoying in The Hangover as well, but not to this extent maybe? I don’t know, The Hangover was a good movie. His character in that definitely messed up big time, but for whatever reason, he was still likable.

In Due Date, there was just no liking him at all. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, he’s already screwed up a lot in Robert Downey Jr’s life. And you know that that’s just the beginning. And you’re thinking, how could he possibly make things worse for him? Do I really want to know? And we didn’t. Which is odd cause usually once I start things, I like to finish them. But we’d seen little enough of the movie that we weren’t completely invested, and were still able to turn away from it and never look back.

Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a movie in which everything goes wrong, all because of one stupid individual. This seemed like it was one of those movies. Why is it so upsetting when this happens? You know it’s only a movie. You know Robert Downey Jr’s life isn’t actually ruined. So what’s the problem? Why not just stay along for the ride that is a series of unfortunate events happening to a fictional character?

I guess it’s the same reason that sad movies make some people cry, and the reason that we like happy endings. For whatever reason, we become emotionally invested in movies. Perhaps because we can relate to the characters? Maybe the story lines somehow remind us of our own lives at times?

For me personally, one of the reasons these types of movies bother me might be because I relate and really feel for the character who’s life is screwed up due to the stupidity of another person. I can definitely recall times in my life when things have gone wrong and were completely out of my control because of someone else. I don’t like to blame other people. Well okay, that’s not completely true. I mean I do take ownership for things that are my fault, but often times we are justified in putting at least some blame on others as well. But then, you could blame yourself for choosing to associate with stupid individuals. But then we don’t always know and we don’t always have a choice.

It’s just all the more upsetting when someone else screws things up for you and you can’t do anything about it. I just didn’t feel like investing my time in watching that happen, even if it was only a movie. Perhaps I’m being unreasonable and the rest of Due Date is actually fantastic and I’m totally missing out? Who knows? I guess the people who’ve seen the movie in it’s entirety would know. Maybe I’ll give it another try some point in the future, at a point in my life where everything’s going well and there’s no chance of any stupid people screwing things up for me. Although I don’t think that point actually exists in anyone’s life. Oh well, I guess I’ll never watch it then.

Like this:

If you haven’t seen the movie Love Actually before, do not read this, as there may be spoilers. Though it seems like I was one of the only people on the planet who hadn’t seen the movie. But now I can say that I have. And was it the greatest Christmas movie of all time? No, not really.

I recently angered a few people with my facebook update which stated that I had watched this movie for the first time and that I did not understand why everyone loved it so much. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie. Enjoyed it even. But it just wasn’t all that people had hyped it up to be. Maybe if I had watched it years ago when it first came out, I would have been in as much awe as everyone else. But I didn’t.

Some of the story lines in the movie I just wasn’t happy with. My friends were yelling at Laura Linney’s character, and rightly so. You’ve been in love with a hot guy for over 2 years and you finally have him in your room and you answer your phone? Why? Sure, your brother’s not well, but it isn’t an urgent matter of life and death at the moment. And how did that story line end? There was no closure. Was that it? She just continues being in love with him after having failed at being with him and that’s that? Not cool.

A story line that people apparently found really cute was the one with the little boy. Really? I’m sorry, that bothers me too much. You’re 11 years old, your mom just died, and you’re depressed because you’re in love? Really? You’re more upset about the agony of being in love than about losing your mother? Every time he talked about love I was just like “but you’re 11!”. Also, this movie was post 9/11. So where the hell was the increased airport security? And how come an 11 year old boy was able to outrun a bunch of cops? I’m sorry, no.

And Hugh Grant as the prime minister. Yeah, I really can’t buy that. I mean sure his character was fine, but I couldn’t take him seriously as a politician. And why would you applaud him at the school play? Oh look, the prime minister is randomly making out with some chick backstage at my kid’s Christmas concert, let’s clap for him! Is that really the appropriate response?

I have to say that the most realistic story line was the one with Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson. I could see that happening. Except why be an idiot and shop for a necklace while your wife is also in the store? And I was curious as to what exactly happened in the end. Were they divorced? Did they stay together? It was unclear the way it was depicted. But I guess that was done on purpose. I would have also liked to know what happened to his secretary. Nothing I suppose? Did she get with him? Did she find love elsewhere? Who knows?

I’m sad to say that the second most realistic story line was probably the one where the guy decides to go to America because girls will love him there for his accent. And they do. I mean it’s shameful to say that girls are actually that shallow, but it’s true that a British accent somehow does wonders. The way things played out for him was definitely exaggerated, but the general idea was somewhat true to life.

I won’t go into all the other story lines, as that would just be overkill. I do already feel as though I’ve overanalyzed this movie so I will stop. Obviously all movies will have story lines that you don’t particularly like or agree with. All in all, it was a good film, just not the best. Maybe next Christmas I will try watching it again, perhaps with a bottle of wine or some eggnog. Maybe then I will love it as much as everyone else.